Gaucho's Head to Big West Championship This Weekend

IRVINE, Calif. -- The 2011 Big West Track and Field Championships will be hosted by UC Irvine's Anteater Stadium, this Friday and Saturday.

Field events will begin with men's hammer throw at 10:00am on Friday and the track events are set to begin at 3:30pm. The same times apply for Saturday as well.

UCSB's Top CompetitorsAmanda Moreno currently ranks number one in the Big West in the 5,000 meters and looks to improve her time of 15:58.02 which became the new conference record after her performance at Mt. SAC. Breanne Strenkowski holds the number two spot in the conference in the 5,000 meter and the fastest time in the 10,000 meters.

Beidi Beer holds the fastest wind-aided time in the 100 meter dash in the conference at 10.55 and sixth fastest time in the 200 meters.

Ryan Martin holds the second fastest time in the conference at 1:47.93 as well as the 400 meter time of 47.35.

Julian deRubira will be competing in the 5,000 meters and is second in the Big West with his time of 14:11.90 which he ran at the Stanford Invitational. In the steeple, both Anthony Masci and Andrea Jacobs are in fourth.

Mitchell Haag and Max Villalba both have the number two spot with their highest clearances this year in the high jump at 6'10.25".

Julian Samson holds the fourth spot in the discus with his mark of 168'10" which he threw at the Cal/Nevada Championships.

Justine Diaz holds the fastest time in the 800 meters with her time of 2:08.89 which she ran at the USC Invitational and Cassie Brooker holds the fourth fastest time which she ran at the Occidental Invite last weekend.

Jean Lightfoot threw 163'3" at the Cal Poly Dual meet which puts her first in the Big West, third in the hammer throw and third in the discus.

Last WeekDerek Masterson came off of a third place finish in the decathlon with a total of 7,295 points at the Big West Combined Events last weekend. He will be competing in the javelin among others and currently sits in fourth place with his throw of 200'7". Masterson earned six points for the Gaucho's to add to the team total score.

Josh Codding finished sixth with a combined score of 6,300 points and adds three points to the total score.

Maureen Ajoku earned fourth in the heptathlon with 5,108 points and added five more points for the Gauchos. Ajoku has the fourth highest mark in the high jump at 5'7" and third longest mark in the long jump at 19'5.75" which ties the school record.

Big West Weekly HonorsCassie Brooker earned Big West Athlete of the Week for her 800 meter performance at the Occidental Invite in Pasadena, Calif. last weekend. Her time of 2:11.02 moves her in the top spots of the 800 meter this weekend.

Next Up
The Gaucho's next competition will be at the NCAA Preliminaries in Eugene, Ore., May 26-28.